When the dance ends and the music stops
by Petit97
Summary: Caskett during the season 8 of Castle. Rick and Kate are entering unkown territory and their marriage is at risk. Can they fix it? Kate will ever let go f her obsessions? [I do not own Castle or anything related. It's all ABC] Please review; I hope you guys enjoy it.
1. Chapter 1 - XY

Love comes from the most unexpected places. Sometimes you arrest a guy, and he happens to be one of your favorite authors and he just starts following you and you become his inspirations; suddenly you are his _muse_. Katherine Houghton Beckett's life completely changed the day she met Richard Edgar Rodgers Alexander Castle, but of course, she didn't know it yet.

They started working together in 2009 and since them, they've been through a lot. At first he was annoying and she almost dreamed about shooting him multiple times, but luckily she never actually did it. Of course that as the years went by, their partnership evolved into a beautiful friendship. Castle wrote one, two, three books and, suddenly, it wasn't about the books anymore. The only thing the best seller author wanted was the opportunity to be side by side of his muse every single day. But falling in love with someone isn't always all about happiness. During the third year Rick was working with the NYPD he really tried to tell Kate how he felt, but the detective was in a relationship already.

Sometimes people need a little push in order to step up and admit what their hearts really wants. In this case, it wasn't until the day Beckett was shot that Castle had the guts to tell Kate 'I love you' for the first time. The problem with love is when it isn't mutual and in this case, the homicide detective chose to pretend she didn't love him back. She did so for a year, bu then again, a near death experience made her step over her pride and confess her love.

Now, a little ways down the road, Beckett and Castle were happily married. She was getting ready for her first day as a captain of the 12th precinct and Castle had just reformed his PI office. Things were going very well for the couple, until the storm arrived. It started with a simple phone call that ended up escalating into a huge conspiracy.

\- First day. How are you feeling?

\- Um... Exhilarated and frightened and everything in between. I wish that you were coming with me. - Kate was really excited about the new job, but she was also sad because workings with Castle wouldn't be possible anymore. At least not in the way they were used to. But he was confident that chapter would be a good one.

\- Oh, sweetie, we talked about this. What am I gonna do? Sit outside your office

and fetch you coffee?

\- Yeah, you're great at fetching. I've trained you well.

\- This is a good change for us.

\- Is it?

\- Yes. Absolutely. And besides, with all the money I spent on the remodeling of my P.I. office, I got to take some cases so I can write that place off. - She loved how supportive he was. - Now, come on. Dig in.

\- No, I'm so nervous I couldn't eat. - Castle was holding a beautiful cupcake in his hands with a tag on it 'Congratulations, Captain Beckett'. It was so beautiful.

\- Who said anything about eating? I said, "dig in." - She was really intrigued; Castle had a way to surprise her!

\- Okay. Like "dig" dig in, right?

\- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

\- Okay. All right. Um...

\- Full on. - He was enjoying himself in that moment, and she could tell by the look on his face. - Keep going. Like that.

\- Wow. - She was holding a beautiful jewelry box in her hands

\- What? That was supposed to be a decoder ring. - He really loved to watch her smile; it was like the whole sun was lighting up on her face.

\- Oh, my God. This is so beautiful. - Inside she found a wonderful bracelet with the word 'Always' craved inside. Rick really knew how to choose a gift for his girl!

Beckett's phone started ringing.

\- Um, would you mind getting that?

\- Yeah, yeah. Here. - He gave a napkin to clean her hands.

\- Thanks.

\- Oh, my God. - She was amazed by the gift.

\- Captain Beckett's phone. - Castle emphasized the word 'Captain' making Kate smile again.

\- Uh... Katherine Beckett, please. - That was the voice on the other side of the line.

\- Of course. Please wait just one moment.

\- Trade you. - He took the napkin from her hand and gave her the phone.

\- Thank you. Here you go.

\- Yeah, this is Beckett. Uh-huh. Okay. Understood. Yeah. You know what? I'm not interested, so why don't you take me off the list?

She hanged up.

\- Telemarketers. I swear there should be tougher laws against them.

\- Well, if you hadn't turned down the chance to run for State Senate,

you could have passed some.

\- Okay, I have got a meeting at 1PP.

\- Knock 'em dead.

\- Thanks.

Castle gave his wife a goodbye kiss and off she went. Oh, if only he knew how much things were gonna change until the end of the day. He didn't have any idea that would be the last time he saw her for a very long time…

When Beckett woke up she didn't have any idea of how much things were change as well. That phone call she received was one of the worst things could happen in her first day.

A clueless Castle went to his office in order to have a normal day at work and got a call from Ryan and Esposito. The two detectives needed their Captain but couldn't contact her. Rick calmed them down because he knew (or at least he thought he knew) she was just having a meeting. The writer went down to the crime scene and despite the amount of bodies everything was running smoothly until Kate's new bracelet was found in the crime scene, almost floating in a pool of blood; her own blood.

Now, the homicide investigation took a new path: finding Captain Beckett. Ryan and Esposito soon realized they had to go deeper if they wanted reach bottom. When they met PI Hayley Shipton things started heating up a little. She wasn't of much help in the interrogation room, so they had to let her go.

The detectives managed to track down some of Beckett's last whereabouts and learned she was shot and there was a man with her. They were in their way back to the precinct when Castle got a very important call.

\- Dad, come back to the office now.

\- What's going on?

\- Just hurry. And come alone.

Castle always surprised - and a little annoyed - to see Hayley with Alexis.

\- My wife is out there fighting for her life. Why are you wasting my time?

\- Wait, what? Why didn't you tell me? - Alexis didn't take the news very well, obviously, Kate was family for her.

\- Now, look, Rick. You asked for my help. You want it or not?

\- What's the catch? 'Cause I'm thinking, with you, there's always a catch.

\- There's only one... no cops. - Well, that was a big deal for Castle; his best friends were cops, damn, her wife was the 12th precinct's captain.

\- Why not?

\- Differing agendas. The cops serve and protect the city. I serve and protect me.

\- Fine. No cops. - Bu then again, he had to whatever he could to get his Kate back.

...

When Castle and the boys found out Senator Bracken was involved things just got more personal. Beckett had chased down his guy for years for having her mother killed. After he was sent to prison was a big relief for everybody. Learning Kate had talked to him earlier in that day only made things worse. Everybody, except for Beckett, seemed to be in the dark about the whole plot, but when Rick was leaving Winterkill correctional, he got kidnapped and horribly tortured in exchange for his wife's location, which he didn't know.

The kidnapper was about to kill the writer when he managed to scape his cuffs and make a run for his life. When certain death had him in a corner, shots were fired and his assailant was down.

\- Castle. Are you okay? - He couldn't believe the image in front of him: it was Beckett and she had just saved his life.

\- Where have you been? Why haven't you called?

\- I couldn't. - She was heart broken, but it was the only way to protect her husband.

\- Kate, what's going on? - He was in terrible pain and he didn't even care. Castle only cared about having his wife back.

\- I… I've got to go.

\- No, no! No, Kate… Kate, why are you shutting me out?

\- Castle, I love you.

\- Kate. Kate. Kate. Kate. - He wanted get up and go after her, but he didn't have the strength.

Castle didn't know what to think. His wife disappeared and didn't even leave him a note. Alexis told him _'Beckett has a reason for keeping quiet'_ , but it wasn't of much help. He kept playing on his head his talk with Senator Bracken.

\- What's so funny? - Bracken was hysterically laughing and it was driving Castle insane.

\- You. You come in here all on fire about your wife. You don't even know who she is. 16 years, Kate Beckett's been obsessed with solving her mother's murder. You really think she can turn off that kind of obsession?

\- Are you saying this is her fault?

\- I'm saying she's never gonna be happy just being Mrs. Castle. She needs to tilt at windmills. It's in her DNA, like a moth to the flame. And we all know what happens to the moth in the end.

 _What if he is right? What if she can't be happy only being my wife?_ , Castle couldn't take that out of his head and it was killing him inside. _Kate, what the hell did you get yourself into?_


	2. Chapter 2 - XX

Beckett was injured and hiding out with Vikram Singh, the guy who gave her the call started all of that hell. They were in a building seized by NYPD, with no connections whatsoever to Kate, so it would give them a couple of days. Unfortunately, that safe place wouldn't be available for much longer. Later that night, the building was attacked by two very well trained teams – the kind shoots first and doesn't even ask any questions. Lucky for them, Rick's stepmother, Rita, showed up and saved the day, at least for the time being.

Meanwhile, Castle was struggling if the idea of his wife keeping him in the dark. He thought Bracken was the last dark spot in their past, but now his ghost seemed more alive than ever. When Kate went to talk to Bracken, he did the usual thing of threatening her, but this time the new captain said something scared the out of the ex-Senator: _Loksat_.

Vikram was an analyst for the Attorney's General office and he had to go on the run as soon as he realized Kate's old team had been killed, and the two of them were in the list to be the next.

Castle, Ryan and Esposito met with Allison Hyde from the A.G.'s office and got some disturbing news.

\- When we started digging into him, we noticed some alarming discrepancies. - Hyde said.

\- What kind of discrepancies? - Castle didn't like her ton at all.

\- It appears that he forged his records to get a job with us. Vikram Singh is not the man he's pretending to be, which means we have to assume that he's up to no good.

The team was very worried, especially because they had no idea of how to find Kate and protect her from whatever the hell was happening!

Both Kate and Rick, even separated, managed to put together the same evidence at the same moment. The Loksat memo that got lots of people killed, Beckett's old team and Senator Bracken involved. They tracked down some number to a plane and a certain person and went ahead to make the arrest. Kate arrived with Vikram and Rick with Hayley. The couple was reunited at last.

\- Kate. - Rick shouted as soon as he saw her.

\- Castle, just shut up and kiss me! - She was so happy to see him again. Earlier that day, Rita had told her, in order to keep her beloved safe, she would have to keep running forever, but that wasn't an option.

He was so happy to be with her again. They had some things to sort out, but it was gonna be later. Now, the only thing mattered was that they were together again.

Castle noticed something wrong, but he still couldn't put his finger on it, yet. That woman wasn't the Kate he married. He had just said she couldn't trust Vikram and she chose to ignore his intel. It wasn't like her to just dismiss him like that.

\- Tell me the truth. Come on. Do you have any idea how worried I was?

\- Yeah, I do. I was gone for 36 hours. A year ago, you were gone for eight weeks. Eight weeks. - Kate didn't wanna bring up his disappearance, but he was just pushing too hard.

\- That was different.

\- Sure was. - She was starting to get annoyed. - You still don't remember what happened during six of those weeks, and yet I trusted you. - He didn't have to right to throw that at her like that. She deserved to have that one. - So, please, just trust me. I didn't do this to hurt you. I did it to protect you.

\- Why am I so angry?

\- You know what? When the shoe was on the other foot, I felt the same way.

\- No. That's not it. It's you. Because I've... Seen this before.

\- What is that supposed to mean?

\- Nothing. - It wasn't nothing. Bracken's speech about Beckett's obsession was running through his head over and over again. And what was driving Castle insane is that he was right; she was starting to obsess again. It was written in her eyes all over again. - Just that we work better as a team.

When Castle looked up and saw a bag near the door and the look Kate had in her face, his heart broke into pieces in front of him. He didn't want even begin to think what that meant. The last time he saw that look in his wife's face, they were chasing down William Bracken. All that crap he told Rick back in the prison was starting to make sense

\- Please do not tell me that son of a bitch knew you better than I do. - Castle was so mad right now. He couldn't believe Kate's obsession was starting all over again.

\- I love you. I always will. Forgive me.

\- Kate, if you really love me, why are you doing this? We can do this together, as always. You walk out of this door, you are destroying our marriage.

\- Rick, I need you to trust me on this. And I hope you can find it in you to take me back when this is over.

She turned her back and walked out. He wanted to go after her, but something inside told him not to. He stood still for a moment, trying to process whatever the hell had just happened.

Castle started throwing dishes at the wall. Alexis and Martha were upstairs and came down running as soon as they heard the noise.

\- Richard, what's going on?

\- Where's Beckett, dad?

Rick looked at them, tears in his eyes:

\- She… she left. - He didn't have the strength to say anything else. He was so damn angry. - I would like to be alone, if that's okay.

Alexis wanted to stay, but Martha knew better than to let her. They both left.

Castle went to his office and started a new file on his wife, just like the one he had many years ago. God, that hurt so much! The author couldn't believe that was going on, not after all they had been through to be together. Both of them had been shot and kidnapped, more than once and yet they managed to overcome all of that.

When Kate walked out that door, she felt the weight of the world in her shoulders, but it was too dangerous to keep Castle in the loop. She loved him so much and that was gonna get him killed; Alexis and Martha would also be in danger. Beckett was crying so hard; her brain kept telling her to stop wining and do what she had to do, her heart in the other hand, was broke into pieces. She knew what she had to do, so she just took a deep breath and left the building.

\- You're making a mistake. - Rita said from inside the car.

\- Tell me that again when this is over. Now shut up and drive. - Kate wiped away her tears and put the seat belt on.

\- Last chance, Kate. You can still get back to your life and let go of all this.

Her silence was the answer. Beckett was determined and no one would stop her from reaching bottom.

The next step for Rick and Kate was gonna be a big and difficult one. Neither one of them knew how to deal with this new challenge; it was gonna be hard, but they weren't ready to let go of one another. Hopefully, their love will survive this terrible storm.


End file.
